Games by Josh Raab

The B-FIG

The Boston Festival of Indie Games was amazing. I manned the table for Nika, which saw constant play and received a very positive reaction overall. I didn’t get to see much of our Crystal Brawl demo, but it was apparently drawing crowds all day. For both games, people were asking “How do I buy?”

If you’re one of those people, you can send me an e-mail to get on my unofficial Nika mailing list. We may start a more formal one if there’s enough demand. Otherwise, follow the Studio Mercato Twitter and Facebook pagefor updates.

Also, I had 2 whole interviews! One was live on NPR’s Beyond the Horizon (WBUR), another was for the Guys Games & Beer podcast. The podcast should be up soon, and the NPR interview will be replaying over the next week and may be available later online. Got to plug Nika and Studio Mercato on the airwaves for the first time – fun stuff!

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4 thoughts on “The B-FIG”

I was one of the folks that played Nika at FIG with some friends. We all walked away declaring the game simple in terms of rules but completely brilliant. The fact that it gave you the feel of phalanx combat with such simple mechanics was just a bonus. Unable to buy it (seriously, sell this game, I’ll happily buy a copy), we made our own construction paper board and pieces and confirmed our initial suspicions that the game is absolutely brilliant. I really can’t gush enough.

Aw, thanks Jonathan! The game will be published by Eagle Games early next year, and we’ll fund it through Kickstarter, so you should be able to order a copy within a few months. The app version should be available around the same time, if all goes well with development on our end.

I learned this game last night and loved it! I don’t think I could get many non-gamers into it though due to the analysis paralysis, any ideas on making it a little quicker or how you could reduce how crucial each move is? Looking forward to the published version!

Thank you! It is a gamer’s game at heart, and that’s fine by me. That said, the rules are pretty simple, so I’ve definitely had non-gamers learn it and enjoy it.

The paralysis you’re talking about is certainly real, but in my experience it tends to affect hardcore gamers on their first play more than anyone else. Once you’ve gone through the game a few times, you’re able to plan out your strategy faster, so turns start to go a lot quicker. Less hardcore gamers aren’t quite so worried about the long-term ramifications of each action, so they move more quickly as well.

Of course, I do want the game to make a good first impression on hardcore gamers, so it is an issue. I might think about including pre-packaged start positions that have you start the game a couple turns in with some pieces already moved. The focus then would be on executing the apparent strategy as best you can, as opposed to deciding on a strategy and then executing it.

I do kind of like the start positions as they are because they give you some time to get comfortable with the movement rules and everything before you enter combat. Still, it’s something I’ll think about for sure. Thanks for the feedback!